Post Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Christmas. Finn was so spoiled from all of the toys, love and attention that he doesn't know what to do with himself. After the hype of Christmas, we enjoyed a few days just hanging out . . . riding bikes, walks on the beach and of course, lots of playing on the swing set!

Pretty sure she is telling him that she will buy him ice cream

and candy when mom isn't looking

Learning to ride his new bike

This is for you Bop!

This just made my heart melt . . . he took night-night out to show her what Santa brought

Santa Delivers

This is what was hiding behind all that newspaper and waiting for Finn on Christmas morning in his backyard. Is he a lucky little boy or what?

Hands down this was the best Christmas thus far. It was our first Christmas in our own home, my family was able to celebrate with us and Finn was beyond excited (as were we). Coupled by the fact that we have been blessed beyond measure, to have friends, family and to be able to come home, made me feel extra humbled and grateful this season. We spent Christmas Eve with the Harvins and Weathingtons. Marla and I went to high school together--her mom was our PE teacher, her dad was our football coach. We go WAY back (as in back when we were both brunettes!). Our families are old friends and coincidentally, we bothmoved back to Charleston within weeks of each other and now are neighbors on SI. We reconnected (thanks Facebook) and pretty much picked up where we left off . . . circa 1997. It was great to celebrate together and spend a quiet Christmas Eve together.

Christmas morning brought lots of anticipation and excitement. Finn was pretty pumped too. After opening the presents under the tree, we emptied our stockings, where Santa left a little note telling Finn to go look outside because there was ONE present that wouldn't fit down the chimney . . .

Santa's Elves Hard At Work

Santa has something BIG planned for Finn this Christmas. His elves needed some extra time to prepare . . . so he asked me to cover our windows and keep Finn from looking and going into his own backyard. Which wasn't going to be that big of a deal except Santa's elves changed the plan last minute and wanted to come a little earlier than planned. So this is how our house looked for 3 days before Christmas. What do you think Finn thought about it . . . .? Nothing. That's what. He is so used to our house being covered in paint, tape, ladders, dropcloths, tools, etc. that he didn't even ask why there was newspaper covering all of the windows.

Our Super Hero Turns 4!

Our super hero officially turns 4 on December 21st, but we celebrated a little early with a birthday party at our house on December 17 (my sister's birthday). There's nothing better than letting a dozen or so preschoolers break in your new house and furniture! We had the perfect day--who would have thought that we would be able to have an outside birthday party in the middle of December? We had a big spiderman jump castle and batman cupcakes. This was our first party in our house and it was wonderful . . . seeing all of the kids running and playing, hearing the screen door slam a million times, and having our friends and family there with us! It was truly a fun day and the first of what I hope to be many, many more birthday parties celebrated in our home. Finn is very blessed to have made so many wonderful friends who were able to share in his special day. And one of the best surprises was that Mimi, Bop, Paige and Mary Daniel made the trip down to celebrate with us. Finn even talked Mary Daniel into getting on the jump castle with him.

Here are a couple of my favorites, the rest you can see in the slideshow. Happy Birthday Super Hero!

Hard to tell, but he seems to be having fun

Love this picture: when one decides to get in, they ALL want in at exactly the same time

Getting ready for cupcakes

A typical family shot these days . . . Finn brandishing some sort of

weapon and making a goofy face

No party is complete without a PINATA!

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Garden School Christmas Program

The three and four year classes put on a little Christmas program for all of us proud moms and dads before leaving for a long Christmas vacation. The kids perform about as well as you would expect them to . . .stage fright, potty breaks in the middle of the first song, picking noses, deer-in-headlights expression . . . it's all priceless and we eat that stuff up! My favorite moment was when they sang Jingle Bells about 6 times because no one could decide when to stop singing so they just kept going on and on and on. Here is a little excerpt of them singing the reindeer hokie pokie. PS yes that is my annoying cackle in the background. Sorry!

We also celebrated Finn's birthday at school with Batman cupcakes! His teacher told me that earlier in the day Father John (the pastor of the church where the school meets) was talking to all of the kids about Christmas and asked who's birthday it was. Finn said it was his birthday. Father John said yes, but who else's birthday is it . . . Baby Jesus, right? And Finn pipes up, "Baby Jesus and MY birthday!"

The City of Light

Christmas came early for me this year. In the form of a plane ticket . . . to Paris. In France. It all started a few months ago when my DC friends Alisha and Amy decided to plan a trip to Paris. They asked if I wanted in, and I did. So Mark gave me the trip for Christmas. And to sweeten the deal, Mark donated enough points for us to have a free hotel room at the Hilton. Don't let him fool you . . .he really is a sweetheart!

The only week that worked for everyone was the 2nd week of December, which is really inconvenient time of year given all of the holiday parties, school parties, birthdays oh and that little thing called Christmas! But since there is no good time to go anywhere, we all went for it, and what a trip it was! Seriously, we all had a wonderful time. It was the perfect mix of sightseeing and vacationing, with lots of cheese, chocolate, girl talk and wine mixed in.

I'll give you the Reader's Digest version of the trip (because I more than make up for it in the volume of pictures!). We took a night flight from DC and got to Paris around 11 am the next morning. There is a 6 hour time difference and no one got much sleep. But, since it was Paris, we chugged some coffee, took showers and powered through. We covered lots of ground that first day . . . the champs elysees, Notre Dame cathedral, the Seine River, Musee d Orsay--all on foot. We crashed that night and slept a solid 14 hours and woke up on Paris time. We cruised the city, hitting some shops, cafes and Opera House. On day 3, we ventured out on the train to see the Palace of Versailles and then back to the Eiffel Tower. Day 4 brought more shopping, eating, the famed macaroon boutique Lauderee, the sneaking into the Ritz, crepes, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Montmarte, Moulin Rouge and probably a lot of stuff I am leaving out.

We ate at fabulous restaurants, some where no English was spoken (we have some mad charade skills), with no "mom jeans" in sight. Seriously, that was a stipulation of being allowed to come on the trip--you had to dress the part. No mom jeans, slippers, running shoes (I came close to breaking that one), makeup and jewelry were suggested! I am grateful to Mark for sending me on this trip, to my in-laws and sister-in-law for taking such good care of Finn (that I didn't call once!) and for Alisha and Amy for being such good traveling compadres. I am so thankful for their friendship and came away from this trip with a greater appreciation and respect for them than before. Cheers ladies! Here's to Italy, Greece and Croatia!!

Without further adieu . . .our pictures. All taken with the iPhone camera because we were all too lazy to lug around our big girl cameras. Feel free to skip some or all.

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Christmas Prep

Here is the scene from the National Tree during our Christmas last year in DC . . .

And here is the scene this year . . . shorts and t-shirts!

Not quite the National Tree but not too shabby.

The third time is a charm--I had to take the lights off 3 times and put them on again because one strand kept shorting out. I hate putting on lights and I did it THREE times. We almost had a Clark Griswold moment on our hands but thankfully when I flipped the switch the last time, they stayed on.

Mark took Finn to the Island Club gingerbread house decorating event. He said it was the ugliest cutest house there.

Finn thought it was all kinds of awesome

Christmas Card Photo Rejects

With an impending Parisian trip quickly approaching, the race was on to order my Christmas cards before I left. I then realized that I had NO appropriate pictures. Emphasis on the appropriate. "How can this be?" you may ask. I take lots of pictures . . . mostly of Finn, but many of them turn out like this . . .

or this . . .

and then there's this . . .

Not exactly the snapshot of our family I wanted hanging on everyone's refrigerator door. So I cleaned Finn up and took him and Lily out to the beach to capture that "perfect" shot. Which clearly is never going to happen . . . because being on a deadline and under the gun, coupled with an unwilling subject much much guarantees that this will not be happening. So, we did our best, and in the end came out with one that will do. Which is all that I can ask for!

Nope . . .

Not quite . . .

What IS Lily looking at??

Next . . .

Definite No

Ding Ding Ding

Merry Christmas from the Lyles